Guv vetoes capital outlay, may have secret weapon

Gov. Bill Richardson has vetoed, in its entirety, the capital outlay bill that was approved Saturday, acting before the disputed 6 p.m. deadline and giving the Legislature time to override the veto.

Richardson also vetoed some portions of the junior budget. Click here for the final version, as acted upon by the governor. I haven’t had time to go through it and figure out what Richardson took out.

Action on the bills comes after a closed-door meeting with House Democrats, and Richardson may have a secret weapon: Senate Bill 471 is a nearly-identical bill to the capital outlay bill Richardson just vetoed. It’s already been approved by the Senate. If he can get the House to approve it before noon on Thursday, the Senate has little leverage left. That would give Richardson 20 days to veto whatever he wants from this year’s capital outlay.

The question is whether Richardson made such a deal with the House.

These are stunning developments at the end of the session. Earlier in the day, it appeared that the Senate had backed Richardson into a corner.

“I think that a lot can happen between 12 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and 12 p.m. Thursday afternoon in Santa Fe,” said House Minority Whip Dan Foley.

You may be wondering why the second capital-outlay bill exists. I’m told that, though the capital-outlay bill usually comes out of the House, senators passed their own this year because they were frustrated the House bill wasn’t moving.

That may come back to bite the Senate if Richardson has made a deal with the House.

More to come.